Tawny Lemuria
List of Tawny Lemuria's threads Tanya "Tawny" Lemuria (born 19 July, 1990) is a character created and roleplayed by Meg on the roleplaying forum, My Own Shadow. Her celebrity representative is Brooke Langton. Biography She was three-and-a-half years when she first started seeing them, hearing them, talking to them. At first her father didn't think much of it; it was common, after all, for children to have imaginary friends. But it soon came to a point where it could not be ignored. Tawny maintained that it was not she who pulled Cindy's hair at day care, but her friend Linda, whom no one else could see. She insisted that Linda or Timothy or Jeremy had made her throw her grandmother's one-of-a-kind vase down the stairs, or set free their parakeet, or finger-paint on the walls. When Tawny threw herself at her father's feet, sobbing about how Timothy was going to hurt her if she didn't do bad things, it was the last straw. Robert Lemuria dragged Tawny to a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, it was too soon for Robert to get any of the answers he desired. At the age of four, she had barely been exhibiting symptoms enough for her situation to be labeled result of a psychiatric disorder. Particularly because she was so young, it was too hard to tell whether or not her 'imaginary friends' were hallucinations or products of an overly-active imagination. She was sent home, with only the advice to 'keep a close eye on her so we can rule out any outside influences.' Robert Lemuria was growing frustrated. He knew there was something wrong, but he didn't know what, and he definitely didn't know what to do about it. So he locked her up. She was confined to her room until she could 'behave herself,' but she could never really behave herself. Her episodes got worse, and after a particularly stressful day at work, Robert Lemuria couldn't handle hearing Tawny shrieking about some 'Timothy' hurting her. He took out his anger on her. He convinced himself it wasn't unreasonable for him to behave in such a manner - wouldn't any parent in his situation do just the same? He just wanted her to be normal, and clearly isolation from her peers was not punishment enough to set her straight. She became afraid of him. She knew she was being punished, but she couldn't understand why. His bouts of rage became so frequent that she began to curl away from him whenever he came near. Sometimes he was nice, but sometimes he acted just like a big, mean monster. And she was afraid. She only saw the outside world a few times a month under the direct supervision of her father. When she grew older they were able to conclude that she most likely had some form of childhood schizophrenia, and they gave her medicine, which her father forced her to take by grinding it up in her ice cream. But she didn't get any less disruptive, at least as far as her father was concerned. It was possible that letting her loose would bring harm to herself, to others, or most importantly, to his reputation; he scarcely told anyone he had a daughter. So she stayed in her room, and she was allowed to use the bathroom only three times a day, and only with her father's permission. He homeschooled her, a little, mostly by showing her videos. He assumed she was too mentally crippled to ever learn to read properly, and consequentially, she can barely read anything at all. Her writing skills aren't much better. She found out she can get out and explore, sometimes, if she wants to. She can sort of walk through things. She was scared, at first, afraid she'd get stuck between a wall, but that never seemed to be a problem for her, and Jeremy said she'd be okay. She didn't tell her father about her ability - Jeremy told her it would be a bad idea - and though she longed to see the outside world, she didn't see it often. She couldn't, wouldn't explain how she got out when her father found her, and he was always angry...and when he was angry, he scared her. She didn't want to deal with that. And sometimes, she can see things. Pieces of things yet to happen. They come without warning and she gets scared, but she met some nice people - her bestest friends - who said they could help her. They did help, a little. She began to realize that maybe seeing those things wasn't bad. Not if she could make good things come of them. Appearance She's a fairly average girl, as far as looks go. Her hair is medium-length, medium-brown, and "medium" on a scale of tangly-messiness. She's a little on the short side, but not unusually so. The only things that set her apart from the rest (aside from the medium-ly messy hair) are her paleness and thinness, and her curious manner of dress. She doesn't have a lot of clothes. Those she does have, her father picked out for her; she's not permitted to go shopping. The majority of her wardrobe is black, and what isn't is dark and worn enough that one can't really tell the difference. Her most-worn outfit is a long-sleeved black dress, and a black, old-fashioned ladies' hat, perfect for funerals, and perfectly unusual-looking on a young girl. She only has one pair of shoes, shiny and black and a little bit too small; they look brand-new, but that's only because she rarely needs shoes. Personality Because of her isolation, she doesn't know much of the outside world, and her curiosity is insatiable. Everything is a wondrous game. What's that? What's it for? How does it work? She wants to know, see, try everything. And she especially loves people, people of all kinds. Short, tall, young, old, male, female, she wants to see them all, know them all. Everyone she meets is a potential friend, but they often avoid her, or whisper about her, because she's so peculiar. Uncivilized, some say. Or more often, crazy. She doesn't behave as society dictates, her manners of speech and acting are unusual, and she doesn't understand that people need space. If she meets a new, interesting person, she's very likely to get too close, simply because she doesn't know it's wrong. But if people get too close to her, she startles. Monsters! She has few memories of good things that happened to her when people got physically close to her. Her naivety is her greatest weakness. She can easily be coaxed or led to do bad things, things she doesn't like or want to do, because she doesn't know they're wrong. Unless they get too close, everyone is a friend. And why would friends do bad things? Relationships Family Robert Lemuria: "Imaginary" Friends *'Jeremy' Is Tawny’s first best friend, whom she likes very much because he’s very smart and nice and knows everything about everything. She mentions him and talks to him often, but if there really is a Jeremy, the only one who can see him is Tawny. *'Linda' Was an older girl who's nice to Tawny and only Tawny. She flies into a jealous rage when anyone else gets close to Tawny, and often suggests that Tawny hurt her potential friends. Luckily, she hasn't been seen since Tawny's early childhood. *'Timothy' Was the older brother of Linda. He was extremely violent in nature, and took pleasure in tormenting Tawny. He seemed to have left around when Linda did. Tawny never knew why he was so cruel to her, or why he left, and is frightened that some day he will come back. Friends *'Cuddles' *'Cylo' *'Sunny Foucault' *'Jael Naire' Trivia *Tawny's character is based off a girl named Genie whose father locked her in her room until she was rescued in her late teens. Due to her lack of exposure to the outside world and other people, she had the manner of a small child. She was also terrified of other people, as she often overheard her father threatening the rest of her family. *She was inspired after her roleplayer glimpsed an ad for the musical My Fair Lady. The clothing Tawny wears is modeled from Eliza's, as well. *She was originally supposed to be a medium, meaning the people she "sees" would be dead spirits rather than hallucinations. Related Articles *Jael Naire *Sunny Foucault *Cylo Category:Player Characters Category:Gifted Ones Category:Meg's Characters